The measure was enacted at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, September 1, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said.

Washington: President Donald Trump warned China on Tuesday that if he is re-elected in the 2020 presidential elections, the Asian giant will find it much tougher when it comes time to negotiate a trade deal with the US, and that meanwhile, its supply chain will collapse.

“We are doing very well in our negotiations with China. While I am sure they would love to be dealing with a new administration so they could continue their practice of “ripoff USA”($600 B/year), 16 months PLUS is a long time to be hemorrhaging jobs and companies on a long-shot,” Trump said in a Twitter post.

“….And then, think what happens to China when I win. Deal would get MUCH TOUGHER! In the meantime, China’s Supply Chain will crumble and businesses, jobs and money will be gone!” the President said.

Trump’s tweet came just two days after the United States applied its promised tariff hike on imports from China with a tax rate of 15 per cent, 5 percentage points more than he had previously announced, on Chinese imports worth $112 billion, the Efe news reported.

The measure was enacted at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, September 1, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said.

Scheduled for December 15 is the application of that same increase on the rest of the $300 billion in targeted Chinese goods, which will amount to some $160 billion and will include such products as mobile phones, laptop computers, video-game consoles and certain toys.

In reprisal, China slapped tariffs of between 5 and 10 per cent on the US products worth $75 billion, the latest chapter in the trade war between Beijing and Washington.

With this conflict, Trump aims to strike a trade balance between the two countries, largely favourable to China, but up to now and despite the imposition of tariffs, has achieved little or nothing in the way of results.

Trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies, unleashed after Trump arrived in the White House in 2017, go beyond bilateral relations and have far-reaching global consequences.

In its latest forecast of global growth, released last July, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered predictions of global expansion to 3.2 per cent this year, 1/10 of a per cent less than was forecast in April, weighed down as it is by doubts about the possible solution to this dispute.